OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2010. Estonia’s economy probably expanded about 6 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier on export demand, Estonian finance ministry said, reported Bloomberg.

The USD 19 billion economy, due to adopt the euro in January, enjoyed robust growth mainly due to accelerating industrial output and improving revenue in the transport and financial industries, Erki Lohmuste, an adviser at the ministry’s economics department in Tallinn, said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg questions.

“Exports achieved pre-crisis levels in the third quarter,” Lohmuste said. “Private consumption could have had a slightly positive contribution despite accelerating price growth, largely thanks to car sales recovering from the spring. A decline in investment has probably stopped and inventories should have given a robust boost similar to the previous quarter.”

An export-led recovery will help Estonia’s economy expand 2.5 percent this year and 4.2 percent in 2011, after GDP shrank by almost a fifth in 2008 and 2009, second in the EU to neighboring Latvia, the central bank forecast in September. GDP returned to annual growth in the second quarter, expanding 3.1 percent.

Estonia’s industrial production increased at the fastest pace in at least a decade in September as demand for the country’s goods and services increases in key markets including Finland and Sweden.

The ministry’s estimate compares with a median forecast of 3.8 percent in a Bloomberg survey of six analysts. The statistics office is due to report its preliminary estimate for third-quarter GDP on Nov. 11.